University News Last updated 21 October 2011
Lord Digby Jones is going to be telling a conference in Birmingham what he thinks is stopping the UK economy from growing.
The former Director General of the CBI will be giving a talk “Growing the UK Economy….what’ll stop us?” to leaders and academics within the plant and equipment business sector.
The Plant and Equipment Management Innovation Conference (PEMIC-11), which is being held at Birmingham City University, is an annual event to celebrate, promote and showcase industrial innovation within the sector.
Lord Jones will be telling conference-goers that the only way out of the UK’s current economic downturn is to trade our way out. He will explore some of the issues he believes are holding the country back such as our education system not being fit for purpose, unintelligent Government procurement and regulatory risk-aversion. He said: “Everyone is certain that we must grow our economy to succeed. So what is going to prevent this happening on a sustainable basis, especially in a globalised market place?”
Ideal choice as keynote speaker
The annual PEMIC conference is organised by Professor David Edwards and Professor Gary Holt from The Centre for Business Innovation and Enterprise (CBIE), which is based within Birmingham City Business School, in partnership with Off-highway Plant and Equipment Research Centre (OPERC). The conference is also host to the OPERC International Awards for Excellence. These honours are given to celebrate outstanding contributions made by professionals throughout the sector in recognition of particular industrial, professional or scientific endeavour. Additional awards are also made to leading academics who have consistently demonstrated sustained leadership and research output of international standing.
Professor David Edwards, who is Director of CBIE said: "We are absolutely delighted that Lord Jones will be speaking at this year’s prestigious Plant and Equipment Management Innovation Conference (PEMIC-11) event. As a highly successful business adviser, and originating from the West Midlands, he was an ideal choice as our keynote speaker and we are confident that conference delegates will find his respected views and opinions enlightening and informative, and his renowned banter entertaining. Last year's event, PEMIC-10, was also held at the University and proved to be a great success - this year we're expecting it to be even bigger and better given the support of an impressive list of industrial sponsors which spans across industrial sectors within this country and abroad."
The conference will take place on Wednesday 16 November at the University’s City North campus in Perry Barr.